Updating table of contents takes a VERY long time even after repagination

[jjasmith4]

I have a complex Word system that creates reports from both data feeds, which populate many tables and charts, and other Word documents which are previously-generated reports. I set background repagination off (Options.Pagination) After all is said and done, the macro repaginates (ThisDocument.Repaginate), saves, then updates the table of contents (ThisDocument.TableOfContents(1).Update), before saving and closing itself.

The whole document generation for one test case takes 44 minutes to generate a 152-page document with many tables, charts, shapes, etc. Throughout the code there are many commands that write a time stamp and informational text into a log file. I've analyzed that log file, and I find that just updating the table of contents takes 36 minutes out of 44, 81% of the whole time!

Is there any way to speed that up?

[macropod]

That suggests you've inserted the Table of Contents via References | Table of Contents, using one of the 'Built-in' options. Whilst that approach has the advantage of adding a 'Table of Contents' heading for you, also inserts the Table of Contents into a content control container, which causes updates to be processed iteratively, one heading at a time. Far better to type your own 'Table of Contents' heading then insert the Table of Contents via References | Table of Contents > Insert Table of Contents or via Insert|Quick Parts|Field.

There may be other issues with your process but, without seeing either the document or the code, it's impossible to advise. Note also that tables impose their own performance hit, especially if they have auto-sizing parameters for the tables themselves and/or the columns.